Some Property Owner Protection

Finally, the lawmakers in Harrisburg got it right.
A new law shields property owners from liability suits involving hunting accidents.
Read more here.

Pennsylvania property owners who allow hunting on their land are now shielded from lawsuits over accidents involving victims off the property, under a bill that Gov. Rendell has signed into law.

Landowners who allow the free use of their property for recreational activities – such as hunting, fishing, swimming and hiking – have been protected from liability for accidents for more than four decades.

The bill Rendell signed Saturday, prompted by a bizarre hunting accident in Lehigh County in 2004, extends that protection for hunting even when the victim is in a distant location.

“Farmers now can be more confident that their livelihood won’t be at risk when they open their land to hunters,” who help control wildlife that causes crop damage, said Carl T. Shaffer, president of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.